Macron becomes president of France after handover with Hollande

Emmanuel Macron, 39, has officially become the eighth president of France’s Fifth Republic after an inauguration ceremony at the Elysée Palace on Sunday where he was handed power by outgoing Socialist president François Hollande.

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old political neophyte, has officially become the youngest president ever elected in France and the youngest serving leader of a G7 nation.

Sunday morning’s handover of power between the outgoing Socialist François Hollande and his onetime protégé Macron was marked by pomp, ceremony, and symbolism – with some of the business of power thrown in as the new president named the first members of his presidential staff.

There was evident affection in the passing of the torch from a president so unpopular he declined to stand for re-election and the young upstart Macron, unknown to the general public only three years ago, who gambled on quitting as economy minister last year to mount his own bid for the presidency, and won.  

Independent centrist Emmanuel Macron, a 39-year-old political neophyte, has officially become the youngest president ever elected in France and the youngest serving leader of a G7 nation.

Sunday morning’s handover of power between the outgoing Socialist François Hollande and his onetime protégé Macron was marked by pomp, ceremony, and symbolism – with some of the business of power thrown in as the new president named the first members of his presidential staff.

There was evident affection in the passing of the torch from a president so unpopular he declined to stand for re-election and the young upstart Macron, unknown to the general public only three years ago, who gambled on quitting as economy minister last year to mount his own bid for the presidency, and won.

Macron and Hollande spent an hour in discussion in the president’s office before the handover ceremony, considerably longer than had been scheduled, before Macron walked his predecessor to a waiting late-model Citroën DS in the palace courtyard to the applause of staff. Hollande called out, “Bon courage!” as he stepped in to the vehicle and was driven off into the history books.

When one recalls how many genuine Hollande rivals had for years been tipped one after another as favourites to march up the red-carpeted courtyard Elysée Palace on Sunday as the Socialist’s successor – from conservative former president Nicolas Sarkozy to conservative former prime ministers Alain Juppé and François Fillon, not to mention the populist spitfire Marine Le Pen, this election’s presidential runner-up – the manifest congeniality, even affection, in Sunday’s handover is unsurprising. Macron took part in Hollande’s successful 2012 campaign and served under him as advisor at the Elysée, before being named unexpectedly to fill the economy minister role from 2014 to 2016.